Leslie Horn

Kids these days, swiping and tapping away at iPads, have absolutely no idea how to fix a mechanical spindle. But until around the Great Depression, children were free to work in factories alongside adults.

It's nothing to get nostalgic about. In the early 20th century, with a lack of child labor laws and limited safety requirements, businesses were free to use children for cheap work in dangerous conditions.

About 100 years later, kids still have a relationship with machines. But as these 20 images show, it's a stark contrast compared with the equipment their grandparents grew up using.

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Like many other children working in this mill in 1908, this child just turned up to help her sister.